


Lemon Grove Reflections

by TheRagdollWrites



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Daenerys Targaryen Is Not a Mad Queen, Daenerys Targaryen Lives, Drabble, Eventual Happy Ending, I don’t have a plan, Nightmares, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, but it’s gonna be okay, season 8 fix-it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22972999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRagdollWrites/pseuds/TheRagdollWrites
Summary: In a parallel universe, Daenerys returned to Meereen with her surviving forces, including two dragons, Ser Jorah and Missandei, after defending the North from the undead legions, and the Iron Throne was returned to the slag from whence it was made…A Khal widow, liberator of slave cities, scarred war veteran, and worldly wise(ish) monarch, all at the ripe old age of twenty-five, Dany begins to search her soul for what she shall do with the life she still has. What she could be: for her children, for the legacy of her house, for the rugged empires of Essos she found a home in… and for herself.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	Lemon Grove Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Mother of Dragons, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…  
> Season Eight did you so dirty, allow me to tend to your wounds.
> 
> By the way, there is much that is adorable about reptiles. You shall see how dragons can be sweet and gentle, as well as fierce and wilful.

The nightmare startled her awake, gasping for air through ashes.

King’s Landing was aglow with battle. Lannister soldiers refused to lay down arms, while her own troops fiercely held sway, until the city was bloated with overripe, shrieking figures, fighter and civilian alike, and absolutely no means of telling which side would breach the stalemate and claim victory…

The Red Keep glowered over the smoking streets, the gold lion banner eyeing the two black-scarlet dragons, fluttering in the hot wind, pinned over the rubble of the Sept and the skeleton of the Dragonpit. A chessboard angrily strewn with scattered pieces, while two players stood in defiance, insisting the game was still going.

Cersei wasn’t just a vain, callow harridan - she was a coward too. _You’re not squeamish enough to kill one or two individual people yourself - but always when you can make a statement while doing so. And you instruct your armies to shed barrels of blood. Or you’d employ explosives. You’d gleefully sit in your red tower, chalice in hand, safe and spoilt while everyone howls in fear of you… you herald yourself as a tyrant, who strews death in her path without a thought. But you are no tyrant! You only do what you can gain from. But I will show you real savagery! I shall do what you refuse to do: I will destroy your city myself, with my dragon’s flames…_

Daenerys watched, helpless, atop Drogon’s scaly shoulders, as he loosed cannons of fire onto the city, turning fleeing innocents into human torches by the thousand…

The nightmares were unpredictable, but frequent. As often as not, Dany would wake herself up weeping, loud enough for one of her subjects was roused to come and attend her. But she couldn’t find any reason to describe what she had dreamed. She was full of stews of horror and guilt, from seeing Ser Jorah torn limb from limb by white walkers, his armoured carcass steaming on the tundra… seeing Jon Snow stranded alone on Winterfell’s threshold, fighting off the colour-drained resurrected hulk of Viserion… seeing Rhaegal take scorpion bolts to neck and chest and wing, spewing torrents of blood as he toppled, shrieking, into Blackwater Bay… seeing Missandei pulled alive from the sea aboard one of the Greyjoy ships, a prisoner escorted into King’s Landing’s gates, and executed while Dany watched, awaiting the reception of what was left of her army.

All of those visions hurt. But none of them made her angry like this one: the dragon within awaking, and unleashing blind fury on everything in her path.

Dany’s anger came from what she knew was close enough to real. Targaryen choler and Targaryen temper… which turned into Targaryen madness. So people darkly whispered.

Her coin was not ‘still in the air’. She proved a long, long time ago, what she was made of, and what she did with her power.

Was power granted? Or was it assumed? Yes, she relished the feeling of being hailed and loved, her name joyfully chanted, being carried on the shoulders of her people - but she fought for people who had suffered like she did. She wanted to create and rule a world that gave people good lives, lives of peace and prosperity and freedom. Moreover, ever since she’d set foot into Khal Drogo’s loyal herd, she’d had a choice: accept or reject the savages for what they were. That was Viserys’ mistake, she’d realised with the benefit of time. He didn’t put any effort into integrating with them, learning their language, earning any respect. While she did - and she was rewarded by learning that savages had a gentle side. Dothraki were brutes, but never the dirt Viserys seemed to take them for. Dothraki had honour, and respect for the rules of the wild. They took what they wanted, but they turned away when there was no hope. They only followed strength.

Through it all, Daenerys never forgot herself. She was never a horse, she was always a dragon. Was a dragon a worse monster than a horse? Almost certainly. But she wanted to learn from the fighters who would’ve liked to slay a monster…

Few people would put the effort in to empathise with savages. And she began to fear that it was too late for her to learn why…

But Dany’s coin was NOT still in the air. What had they done? They’d poked and prodded the dragon, testing her patience, itching her where she couldn’t scratch, tormenting her… until she lost her temper.

And how had they responded? They gasped _we knew it! See, this is what the dragon is! The monster! She is awake, this is what she has always been! She’s mad! Targaryen Madness!!_

Oh how they thanked her… when she did so much to free them from tyranny, to prove herself worthy of respect and fear, and love too... and vanquish the ice-born horrors that threatened everyone and everything in Westeros.

No wonder she’d packed up and left. The last survivor of a long dynasty of kings... instead, she’d gone back over the sea, back to where she’d experienced what really felt like belonging.


End file.
